French Pat. No. 2,383,667, S. Desjonqueres, bearing the legend "Date de la mise a la disposition du public de la demande . . . B.O.P.I.-"Listes" n. 41 du 13-10-1978" describes topical erythromycin compositions in which rapid penetration of the antibiotic into the sebaceous follicles is achieved. The excipient base include alkyl esters of fatty acids such as lauric, linoleic, myristic and oleic acids.
Compositions for topical treatment of acne are known. Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,099, issued Apr. 20, 1976, discloses compositions for treating acne lesions by topical application of tetracycline antibiotics in a skin penetration vehicle comprising sucrose monooleate, decyl methyl sulfoxide and alcohol.
Stoughton, U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,516, issued July 13, 1976, and Arch. Dermatol., 84 182 (1976), discloses a method for topically treating acne by applying formulations containing various antibiotics in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. The data presented are said to indicate that tetracycline in a pyrrolidone-based penetrating vehicle does not effectively control the inflammatory lesion of acne. In addition to tetracycline, compositions of erythromycin, erythromycin derivatives and clindamycin in the same vehicle were studied. The combination of erythromycin and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone gave results which were assertedly better than tetracycline in the same vehicle, whereas the antibiotic lincomycin gave superior results in controlling the inflamed lesions.